During this visit, you should work with one or more groups of students if you haven't already, and observe your teacher doing the same. For this journal entry, describe your teacher's teaching style. What type of relationships with students does he or she nurture in his or her classes? How do students perceive that power is distributed in the classes? Does this vary within or across the different classes the teacher has? Cite examples from your observations to support your inferences. Remember to reflect on what style of teaching you will gravitate toward and the how you want to be perceived by your students.
November 17, 2010 North Smithfield Middle School Mrs. Lynn Hannah
Obeservation
Mrs. Hannah's teaching style and relationship with her students for the most part is consistent in all of her classes. The only two classes that there was a noticeable difference between was period 3 and period 5. Everything about the two classes was mostly the same, from the student number to the work load. The only main difference was that period 5 was an inclusion class (of 4 students), requiring the presence of Mrs. Williamsom and period 3 was not. You can immediately tell the difference between the two periods, from behavior to educational abilities. Mrs. Hannah distributes her notes for each chapter section through power point, along with a note guide (half filled in) that accompanies the power point to help the students follow along. She does not mandate the note guide, she simply distributes it to help the students who have trouble keeping up with the power point notes. This is a great way of mixing up her teaching styles, because some students simply can not learn from writing notes from a power point, which is where the note guide comes in handy. In each class, I took a walk around the room to observe the students and their note-taking. Period 5 and period 2 seemed to favor the note guide tremendously more than the other classes. However, with every positive comes a negative, and yes Mrs. Hannah tries to save class time by speeding up the note taking process with a helpful note guide, but when you have a very high disruptive behavior level amongst the students such as in period 5, it is hard to get all the necessary tasks done in the designated time period. There is a good group of about five students who act often and cause a large amount of disruptions to Mrs. Hannah's teaching. She has to constantly stop to reprimand this behavior and keep it from escalating even further. Even though she does not spend a lot of time on each behavior check, each pause in her teaching adds up, and by the end of the period she did not get to everything she planned on, and most importantly is always behind in comparison to the other classes.Mrs. Hannah also differentiates her style of teaching. Today she was teaching about physical and chemical changes. First, she started with the power point for notes, then she moved to a class question review, then she finished with mini-experiments that she conducted where the students have to determine what type of change it is.
It is because of behavior situations such as this one that Mrs. Hannah maintains a slightly different relationship in all of her classes. In her period 5 inclusion class, Mrs. Hannah possesses a more strict teaching style and presents more power over her students. If she was not like this, the students behavior would be worse than it already gets at times and Mrs. Hannah would have a much more difficult time controlling the class. In her other classes, Mrs. Hannah is still strict, but she is much more laid back. The students do not need to be reprimanded as much and are much more respectful while she is trying to teach. The students are still to raise their hand and wait to be called on when they wish to speak or are answering a question, however, if a student gives a "funny" answer to a question Mrs. Hannah is less likely to get aggravated because they have the ability to get right back on track with what they were previously doing. However, when I say Mrs. Hannah acts strict, I do not mean powerful. Mrs. Hannah does not disrespect the students and abuse the power she has over them as a teacher. She allows her students to have a voice in the classroom and speak their minds as long as it be appropriate. There was one instance in her period 5 class where a student came up to her desk near the end of the period and asked if he could go to the lavatory. Mrs. Hannah told the student "One, you took no notes during class today after I asked you multiple times to take out a pencil and to start writing. And two, there is five minutes left in the period, you can wait until the bell rings". The student did not like this response and as he turned and walked back to his desk he mimicked her response over and over, "You can wait until the bell rings. You can wait until the bell rings". With the student saying it loud enough for his classmates to hear, Mrs. Hannah had to address the situation so the student and others do not think they can disrespect her. Mrs. Hannah asked the student to come back up to her desk. She asked him how he would like to write "You can wait until the bell rings" 100 times for homework. She did not drag it out, she just simply wanted to let him know that she heard him, she did not find it amusing, and for him not to do it again.
Reflection
During today's observation what I admired most about Mrs. Hannah's teaching is her strong control and management of the behavior in her classroom. She indeed has at least one or two students, some times more, in each class that creates frequent disruptions in the classroom. Mrs. Hannah already defines these disruptions as unnecessary distractions that steal precious class time. Therefore, she chooses to waste no more time scolding the misbehaved student during class, she simply addresses their behavior quickly with a, "Hey Bob, that is enough unless you would you like to stay after school with me", and continues her lesson. Mrs. Hannah seems to have set a strict tone with the students from day one, because they seem to know when enough is enough and when they should tune down their class cloAwn behavior.
Another aspect of Mrs. Hannah's teaching style that amazed me is how well she differentiates her teaching for the diverse learning styles in the classroom. The students were learning about physical and chemical changes in today's class, but Mrs. Hannah did not teach them about these type of changes in just one way. She started with the power point of notes that consisted of definitions and key terms that were important to know. With this, she also gave an optional note guide for the students to follow along with. The note guide was not a mandatory sheet that all students had to use. It simply acted as an assistance guide for the students who needed it either to stay focused during class, help them study, or even keep up with the notes. After the power point Mrs. Hannah switched it up to a more verbalized lesson, where she held a class review discussion. She asked different questions such as, "What defines a physical change" and "Can someone give me an example of a chemical change". After that activity, she switched up her style to a more hands on learning approach. She did this by conducting mini experiments at the front of the class with milk and vinegar and antacids. She performed experiments where solutions produced gas, bubbles, changed from blue to clear in seconds, or even completely disappeared. In just one class period, Mrs. Hannah managed to teach about physical and chemical changes through three different teaching styles. She truly seems to want to reach as many students as possible and see them succeed. [[OR-3 - CourtneyL#|help on how to format text]]
Observation/Reflection #3: A Matter of Style
Chose one of the prompts below:November 17, 2010
North Smithfield Middle School
Mrs. Lynn Hannah
Obeservation
Mrs. Hannah's teaching style and relationship with her students for the most part is consistent in all of her classes. The only two classes that there was a noticeable difference between was period 3 and period 5. Everything about the two classes was mostly the same, from the student number to the work load. The only main difference was that period 5 was an inclusion class (of 4 students), requiring the presence of Mrs. Williamsom and period 3 was not. You can immediately tell the difference between the two periods, from behavior to educational abilities. Mrs. Hannah distributes her notes for each chapter section through power point, along with a note guide (half filled in) that accompanies the power point to help the students follow along. She does not mandate the note guide, she simply distributes it to help the students who have trouble keeping up with the power point notes. This is a great way of mixing up her teaching styles, because some students simply can not learn from writing notes from a power point, which is where the note guide comes in handy. In each class, I took a walk around the room to observe the students and their note-taking. Period 5 and period 2 seemed to favor the note guide tremendously more than the other classes. However, with every positive comes a negative, and yes Mrs. Hannah tries to save class time by speeding up the note taking process with a helpful note guide, but when you have a very high disruptive behavior level amongst the students such as in period 5, it is hard to get all the necessary tasks done in the designated time period. There is a good group of about five students who act often and cause a large amount of disruptions to Mrs. Hannah's teaching. She has to constantly stop to reprimand this behavior and keep it from escalating even further. Even though she does not spend a lot of time on each behavior check, each pause in her teaching adds up, and by the end of the period she did not get to everything she planned on, and most importantly is always behind in comparison to the other classes.Mrs. Hannah also differentiates her style of teaching. Today she was teaching about physical and chemical changes. First, she started with the power point for notes, then she moved to a class question review, then she finished with mini-experiments that she conducted where the students have to determine what type of change it is.
It is because of behavior situations such as this one that Mrs. Hannah maintains a slightly different relationship in all of her classes. In her period 5 inclusion class, Mrs. Hannah possesses a more strict teaching style and presents more power over her students. If she was not like this, the students behavior would be worse than it already gets at times and Mrs. Hannah would have a much more difficult time controlling the class. In her other classes, Mrs. Hannah is still strict, but she is much more laid back. The students do not need to be reprimanded as much and are much more respectful while she is trying to teach. The students are still to raise their hand and wait to be called on when they wish to speak or are answering a question, however, if a student gives a "funny" answer to a question Mrs. Hannah is less likely to get aggravated because they have the ability to get right back on track with what they were previously doing. However, when I say Mrs. Hannah acts strict, I do not mean powerful. Mrs. Hannah does not disrespect the students and abuse the power she has over them as a teacher. She allows her students to have a voice in the classroom and speak their minds as long as it be appropriate. There was one instance in her period 5 class where a student came up to her desk near the end of the period and asked if he could go to the lavatory. Mrs. Hannah told the student "One, you took no notes during class today after I asked you multiple times to take out a pencil and to start writing. And two, there is five minutes left in the period, you can wait until the bell rings". The student did not like this response and as he turned and walked back to his desk he mimicked her response over and over, "You can wait until the bell rings. You can wait until the bell rings". With the student saying it loud enough for his classmates to hear, Mrs. Hannah had to address the situation so the student and others do not think they can disrespect her. Mrs. Hannah asked the student to come back up to her desk. She asked him how he would like to write "You can wait until the bell rings" 100 times for homework. She did not drag it out, she just simply wanted to let him know that she heard him, she did not find it amusing, and for him not to do it again.
Reflection
During today's observation what I admired most about Mrs. Hannah's teaching is her strong control and management of the behavior in her classroom. She indeed has at least one or two students, some times more, in each class that creates frequent disruptions in the classroom. Mrs. Hannah already defines these disruptions as unnecessary distractions that steal precious class time. Therefore, she chooses to waste no more time scolding the misbehaved student during class, she simply addresses their behavior quickly with a, "Hey Bob, that is enough unless you would you like to stay after school with me", and continues her lesson. Mrs. Hannah seems to have set a strict tone with the students from day one, because they seem to know when enough is enough and when they should tune down their class cloAwn behavior.
Another aspect of Mrs. Hannah's teaching style that amazed me is how well she differentiates her teaching for the diverse learning styles in the classroom. The students were learning about physical and chemical changes in today's class, but Mrs. Hannah did not teach them about these type of changes in just one way. She started with the power point of notes that consisted of definitions and key terms that were important to know. With this, she also gave an optional note guide for the students to follow along with. The note guide was not a mandatory sheet that all students had to use. It simply acted as an assistance guide for the students who needed it either to stay focused during class, help them study, or even keep up with the notes. After the power point Mrs. Hannah switched it up to a more verbalized lesson, where she held a class review discussion. She asked different questions such as, "What defines a physical change" and "Can someone give me an example of a chemical change". After that activity, she switched up her style to a more hands on learning approach. She did this by conducting mini experiments at the front of the class with milk and vinegar and antacids. She performed experiments where solutions produced gas, bubbles, changed from blue to clear in seconds, or even completely disappeared. In just one class period, Mrs. Hannah managed to teach about physical and chemical changes through three different teaching styles. She truly seems to want to reach as many students as possible and see them succeed.
[[OR-3 - CourtneyL#|help on how to format text]]